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Reviews by ninjacom32

80

Back to Basics

This DLC deals with adding quite a bit of flavour to Christianity, the namesake of Crusader Kings 2. These mechanics are a welcome addition to the game. Curia and papal intrigue mean that your character can delve into the religious part of the game as a Christian now!

The decision to expand on the regular heresies is also nice and it adds more depth to anyone who happens to become one. Can't wait to finish a game as an Iconoclast or a Cathar.

There's also been some flavour additions to Muslims (such as the ability to choose which school/ideology to back). And who can forget the ability to play as a Jewish character? Can't forget that.

All in all, fun stuff.

80

Journey into the Dark Continent

The crisis system tries to integrate secondary powers and smaller nations into the grand scheme of the game, and succeeds reasonably well at its goal. Unfortunately, the game limits itself to one crisis occurring at the same time and the game might have several flashpoints ready to boil over simultaneously. This leads to the outcome of having random chance decide which crisis is fought over.

The updates to warfare were sorely needed and mark the high point of this expansion. Ticking warscore in particular was an excellent addition to the game. This means that one does not have to occupy the entirety of an enemy nation to simply take one of its colonies on the other side of the world and makes localized wars possible. The new naval system also reduces the AI spam of capital warships and leads to new and interesting conflicts in the later game.

For an expansion with a title directly relating to the colonial era, it is odd for this expansion to do so little with the new colonization system. Colonizing is simply more of a tedious click-fest that you have to check every few months and combined with the AI's inability to manage colonial points means that dominions will be released as soon as they can be left me still wanting with regards to colonization.

For all of the criticisms that I bring up, Heart of Darkness is still a solid addition to the Victoria 2 series. If you liked any of the previous games, be sure to pick this up!